Chris Grayling: BBC dramas such as Sherlock show corporation is left-wing

The BBC has a "cultural leaning to the left," with TV dramas such as Sherlock belying a lack of impartiality in the corporation, a Tory Cabinet Minister claimed tonight.

In a fresh attack from the Conservative Party over the perceived left-wing bias of the corporation, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said plots in BBC dramas highlight the need for change before it becomes "a genuinely dispassionate" broadcaster.

The final episode of Sherlock triggered debate over the BBC's impartiality after it featured a description of an "incoherent" Mayor of London, with critics suggesting it represented an attack on Boris Johnson.

"They've been on the wrong side, they've been unbalanced in the debate over the years about immigration, about Europe. And I think they've wised up to that," Mr Grayling told The House magazine.

"But there is still a cultural view within the BBC, not just within current affairs. To some extent it's less with current affairs than within general entertainment, the throwaway lines in a drama which still suggest that actually the BBC's got some way to go before it really to my mind fulfils the role it has to be a genuinely dispassionate public service broadcaster."

The attack is the second within the space of months from a senior Tory, with Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps suggesting in October the licence fee would be cut if the BBC did not tackle its "culture of waste and secrecy".

And Mr Grayling continued: "I think there's still an inclination to cover issues in a way that is very much about the culture of a slightly left-leaning, metropolitan group of people who are disproportionately represented there."

He said of those employed by the corporation: "I think the real problem for the BBC is not that there is an intentional bias at senior levels, not that it is institutionally biased against us. But it's that there is a cultural leaning towards the left.

"The people who work at the BBC have a particular viewpoint on life more often than not."

In the wide-ranging interview the Justice Secretary said he could "understand" the concerns expressed by TV chef Nigella Lawson following her experience giving evidence at the trial of her and ex-husband Charles Saatchi's personal assistants Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo, who were acquitted.

Lawson, who admitted during the court case that she had taken cocaine, said that she felt as if she was the one on trial and raised concerns that witnesses were not represented by counsel.

Mr Grayling said: "I don't think we are going to be able to get to a position where you've got a lawyer standing alongside the witness in the box. In many respects it's for the judge to be the advocate for the witness, in terms of saying to the lawyer 'that's over the top, you can't do that'.